Events

Social Impact Workshop

Advancing thinking on how to Measuring Social Impact is an important strand of E3M’s work

In 2013 E3M published a piece of action based research on the “Measuring Social Impact in Social Enterprise: The State of thought and practice in the UK” (Jim Clifford, Kate Markey and Natasha Malpini). This work informed the European Commission GECES report on Impact Measurement (‘Proposed Approaches to Social Impact Measurement in EU legislation”) and G8 discussions on this topic.

E3M is now focussing on how the standards agreed by 28 EU countries in the GECES report can be used to benefit those with an interest in Impact Measurement in the UK and in particular their practical application by social enterprises, investors and commissioners.

To take this forward a special E3M workshop took place on the 13th of January 2015 with the following objectives:

Understanding the GECES standards in the context of social impact measurement in different social need arenas in the UK

Developing a coordinated response to the GECES standards and how they will be used to benefit those in the UK interested in social impact measurement

Establishing who needs to be involved in that, and in what way to achieve that

Considering whether a code of conduct is helpful, and what it should contain if so

Producing, after the day, a report of the findings

The discussions took place under Chatham House Rules and were based on background papers prepared by the E3M partners. The workshop used a mixture of plenary discussions and four break out sessions. These looked at

Health and care

Employment

Children and youth

Offenders

And focussed on the following questions:

In your sector area, who are the key stakeholders, and what is the nature of their interest?

Who funds work in your sector (i.e. who pays for services or outcomes)?

Is impact measurement being undertaken in your sector, and would it be GECES compliant as currently done and presented?

Can the process and disclosure standards of GECES be applied in your sector?

Taking the ideas for further development that came out of the first plenary, do these make sense in your sector? If not, why do they not?

What activities or steps do you believe are necessary and helpful to deliver those ideas, falling to each of:

Social sector collectively or central bodies

Specific parties or sector bodies in your service arena?

Do you have any other ideas that would help?

The plenary discussions focussed on the overall understanding of the implications of the GECES for social impact measurement in the UK, developing a common strategy for making GECES useful to the UK community and determining who should be doing what to deliver it.

The workshop is being written up by an E3M team led by Dr Richard Hazenberg and Jim Clifford outlining a set of priorities for the sector response to the GECES framework. The E3M partners are currently assessing next steps in working with the community of interest in impact measurement to take forward the recommendations from the workshop.